First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 9th

John Vance Cheney, Quote

“The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.”

~ John Vance Cheney

Wikiquote (John Vance Cheney (December 29, 1848 – May 1, 1922) an American poet, essayist and librarian.)

This Day in History

April 9th, 193

Roman Empire Decline and Fall of Rome

Roman Empire:
193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans.
537 - Siege of Rome; The Byzantine (East Roman Empire) general Belisarius receives his promised reinforcements, 1,600 cavalry, mostly of Hunnic or Slavic origin and expert bowmen. He starts, despite of shortages, raids against the Gothic camps and Vitiges is forced into a stalemate.

Wikipedia  Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.


April 9th, 475

Byzantine Empire Collage Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562)

Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
475 - Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issues a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christological position.

Wikipedia  Image: The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria; Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna; The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid); Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty.
Photo: Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562).


April 9th, 1388

Battle of Grandson; the Swiss confederacy decisively defeats the crack forces of Duke Charles ‘the Bold’ of Burgundy, and later in the same year they repeated the feat at Morat

Battle of Näfels: Despite being outnumbered 16 to 1, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy are victorious over the Archduchy of Austria.

Wikipedia  Painting: Battle of Grandson; the Swiss confederacy decisively defeats the crack forces of Duke Charles ‘the Bold’ of Burgundy, and later in the same year they repeated the feat at Morat.


April 9th, 1413

Henry V is crowned King of England

Henry V is crowned King of England.

Wikipedia  Image: Henry V features in three plays by William Shakespeare. He is shown as a young scapegrace who redeems himself in battle in the two Henry IV plays and as a decisive leader in Henry V.


April 9th, 1609

Eighty Years' War Collage Eighty Years' War: Battle off Lizard Point; Battle between Dutch and Spanish men-of-war. Oil on copper, Naval Museum of Madrid

Eighty Years' War:
1609 - Spain and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of Antwerp to initiate twelve years of truce.

Wikipedia  Painting: Siege of the Schenkenschans by Gerrit van Santen; Relief of Leiden after the siege, (1574); Frederick Henry and Ernst Casimir at the siege of 'sHertogenbosch by Pauwels van Hillegaert; Disarming the waardgelders in Utrecht, 31 July 1618, by Joost Cornelisz. Droochsloot; Swearing of the Peace of Münster by Gerard ter Borch.
Battle off Lizard Point: Battle between Dutch and Spanish men-of-war. Oil on copper, Naval Museum of Madrid.


April 9th, 1682

La Salle's Expedition to Louisiana in 1684, painted in 1844 by Theodore Gudin. La Belle is on the left, Le Joly is in the middle, and L'Aimable is grounded on the right

Explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.

Wikipedia  Painting: La Salle's Expedition to Louisiana in 1684, painted in 1844 by Theodore Gudin. La Belle is on the left, Le Joly is in the middle, and L'Aimable is grounded on the right. (1681 map shows cartographer Claude Bernou's perception of North America before La Salle traversed the Mississippi River - The Rio Grande is listed as Rio Bravo, and the map shows a lack of knowledge of the geography of Texas)


April 9th, 1782

American Revolutionary War Collage American Revolutionary War, Battle of the Saintes, 9 April 1782 – 12 April 1782

American Revolutionary War:
1782 - Battle of the Saintes; begins.

Wikipedia  Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Battle of the Saintes (April 9, 1782 – April 12, 1782)


April 9th, 1860

Iconic Dog Looking at and Listening to a Phonograph, 'His Master's Voice', The Original RCA Music Puppy Dog Logo Symbol for Advertising

History of sound recording: On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice.

Wikipedia.org  Image: Phonautograph; (April 9, 1860 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice) ● Phonograph cylinder; (George Edward Gouraud annexes Handel's Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music) ● Iconic Dog Looking at and Listening to a Phonograph (Invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison), "His Master's Voice", The Original RCA Music Puppy Dog Logo Symbol for Advertising. credit Berverly & Pack, Flickriver.


April 9th, 1865

Lincoln Memorial: an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument American Civil War: Battle of Antietam; Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland American Civil War: American Civil War: First Battle Between Ironclads; CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads

American Civil War:
1865 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.

Wikipedia  Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.


April 9th, 1867

Alaska: the largest state in the United States by area, is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait

Alaska purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.

Wikipedia  Photo: Alaska; the largest state in the United States by area, is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait.


April 9th, 1914

Mexican Revolution Collage: (Spanish: Revolución mexicana) was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz, and lasted for the better part of a decade until around 1920

Mexican Revolution: Action of April 9th, 1914; One of the world's first naval/air skirmishes takes place off the coast of western Mexico.

Wikipedia  Photo: Satellite view of Mexico; American forces at Veracruz; Pancho Villa And Army; Peasant soldiers patrol the town of Tampico during the Mexican Revolution; Zapata's soldiers breakfast at Sanborns, Mexico City, 1914.


April 9th, 1916

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1916 - Battle of Verdun; German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
1917 - Battle of Arras; Canadian Corps executes a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
1918 - Battle of the Lys; Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders - Portuguese Expeditionary Corps is crushed by the German forces.

Wikipedia  Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.


April 9th, 1918

UNESCO list of heritage sites Romania

Kingdom of Romania Union of Bessarabia with Romania; The National Council of Bessarabia proclaims union.

Wikipedia  Photo: UNESCO list of heritage sites Romania; ● Peles Castle, Sinaia, Romania ● Bran Castle - "Dracula's Castle", in the Transylvanian Alps, credit National Geographic ● Bucharest, capital of Romania called " the Paris of the Balkans" coping Parisian street systems and buildings in the 1920's, constructing Romanian Arch of Triumph.


April 9th, 1940

World War II: Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf; Battle of Leyte Gulf; The first kamikaze attack: A Japanese plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island World War II: German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944) World War II: Eastern Front (World War II); was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945

World War II:
1940 - Operation Weserübung; Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
1940 - The Vidkun Quisling seizes power in Norway.
1942 - Battle of Bataan / Bataan Death March - United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Imperial Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast.
1945 - The German cruiser Admiral Scheer is sunk.
1945 - Battle of Königsberg; in East Prussia ends.
1945 - The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.

Wikipedia  Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945. USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.

Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.


April 9th, 1947

Tornado Collage: A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.

Tornadoes:
1947 - Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes; kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Wikipedia  Photo: Weather Front System; Tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma; North Dakota Tornado; F3 Category Tornado Swirls Across A South Dakota Prairie by Carsten Peter; A waterspout parallels a lightning strike over Lake Okeechobee in Florida, by Fred K. Smith, National Geographics, Extream Instability.


April 9th, 1965

The Astrodome in Houston, Texas: In the 1960s, the era of the multi-purpose stadium

The Astrodome opens - first indoor baseball game is played.

Wikipedia  Photo: The Astrodome in Houston, Texas: In the 1960s, the era of the multi-purpose stadium, credit Major League Baseball (MLB), Getty Images.


April 9th, 1967

The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) makes its maiden flight

The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) makes its maiden flight.

Wikipedia  Photo: Boeing 737-100 in Boeing house colors.


April 9th, 1969

British Airways inaugurates a regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service

The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford.

Wikipedia  Photo: Concorde, one of the wonders of the modern technical world, the first commercially successful airliner capable of speeds in excess of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) credit Heritage Concorde


April 9th, 2003

Iraq War: The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), codenamed Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait

Gulf War - Iraq War:
2003 - Baghdad falls to American forces; Saddam Hussein statue topples as Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader, pulling down the statue and tearing it to pieces.

Wikipedia  Photo: USAF F-15Es, F-16s, and a USAF F-15 flying over burning Kuwaiti oil wells; Iraqi Army T-72 main battle tanks. The T-72 tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War; F-15Es parked during Operation Desert Shield; The oil fires caused were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait; Aerial view of destroyed Iraqi T-72 tank, BMP-1 and Type 63 armored personnel carriers and trucks on Highway 8 in March 1991.


April 9th, 2013

Global Earthquake epicenters

Earthquake:
2013 - Bushehr earthquake; At least 37 people are killed and 850 are injured when a 6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes the Iranian province of Bushehr.

Wikipedia  Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.


April 9th, 2013

Velika Ivanča shooting: A gunman murders 13 people in a spree shooting in the village of Velika Ivanča, Serbia.

2013 - Velika Ivanča shooting: A gunman murders 13 people in a spree shooting in the village of Velika Ivanča, Serbia.

Wikipedia  Photo: Priests attend the funeral ceremony of shooting victims in the village of Velika Ivanca (Marko Djurica / Reuters) / Radmilo Bogdanovic, brother of suspected gunman Ljubisa Bogdanovic, weeps in the aftermath of the killings. (Darko Vojinovic, AP) / Mourners carry crosses with pictures of some of the victims of the shooting rampage in the village of Velika Ivanca on April 12, 2013 (Andrej Isakovic, AFP - Getty Images)


April 9th, 2014

Franklin Regional High School stabbing

2014 - Franklin Regional High School stabbing: At least 22 people are stabbed at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania.

Wikipedia  Photo: Alex Hribal, the suspect in the multiple stabbings at the Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, is escorted by police to a district magistrate to be arraigned, April 9, 2014, in Export, Pennsylvania (Keith Srakocic, /AP)


April 9th, 2017

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2017 - Palm Sunday church bombings; at Coptic Churches in Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt.

Wikipedia  Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)